Shine a light on dark money

Secret campaign donors in Texas may soon be forced out of the shadows.

The Texas Ethics Commission, already fighting a conservative group in court over whether it can regulate dark money disclosure, appears poised to approve a proposal aimed at requiring some politically active nonprofits to start revealing their anonymous donors.

The eight-member commission rolled out a draft proposal Thursday, signaling how the state campaign finance regulator plans to move forward on tackling the growing concern over secret campaign spending in Texas elections.

Under the draft regulation, the commission would require a nonprofit to start disclosing donors if 25 percent or more of the group’s expenditures can be classified as politically motivated. It also would require disclosure if political contributions account for more than 25 percent of the group’s total contributions in a calendar year.

“We’re tying to figure out how we get to the public information about who is contributing to candidates,” said commission Chairman Jim Clancy, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.

Separately, the commission on Thursday clarified that dark money groups may spend up to 20 percent of their revenue on politics without having to disclose donors.

The commission referred to it as a safe harbor, of sorts, in an opinion that represents one of the first concrete pieces of guidance provided to campaign finance lawyers since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2010 allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums on electioneering.

As I’m sure you know, I am all in favor of more disclosure. I honestly don’t understand the argument against it, though I’m aware that the courts don’t necessarily share my view. The usual anti-transparency suspects are kicking up the usual fuss and threatening to take this to court, where they unfortunately will have a good chance of prevailing. It’s still the right thing to do, and who knows? Maybe some day we’ll have better judges. Texas Politics has more.